Two former Israeli policemen have been arrested on suspicion of transmitting secret data to a Russian-jewish oligarch, Russian newspaper Izvestia reports.

According to reports, the policemen had been working for jewish billionaire Boris Berezovsky or another so-called “Russian” businessman Mikhail Chernoy. Mikhail Chernoy or Mikhail Chorny(means “Black”) is a Russian-born Israeli entrepreneur. He is known for his business ventures and for founding the Michael Cherney Foundation.

The Pentagon purchased two Russian-made Su-27 fighter jets from Ukraine. The United States will reportedly use the Russian jets to train effective counter-operation efforts.

The Russian jets are a serious competition for the US F-15 fighters. The jets of Russia’s renowned Sukhoi design bureau proved to be more successful than their US competitors during a number of tests. The Pentagon has been trying to obtain the Russian warplanes, and Ukraine helped the nation do it legally.

The news about the deal between the USA and the Air Force of Ukraine appeared on the US-based website Strategypage.com. The website said that Russia’s Su-27 fighters were technically similar to F-15 jets, although the Russian planes were 30 percent cheaper.

The ninth meeting of the Russian-German Forum, Petersburg Dialogue, which was set up eight years ago under the initiative of then-president Vladimir Putin and then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, took place in Munich on July 14-16.

Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev and Germany’s Angela Merkel held a meeting within the scope of the forum to discuss issues of cooperation between the two countries.

Germany has become Russia’s major partner in Europe during the recent years. To which extent are the Russian-German relations strong? Pravda.Ru interviewed one of the leading German experts on Russia, an expert with the German Council for Foreign Politics, Alexander Rar.

Former Bush administration officials are strongly displeased about Obama’s conduct during his recent visit to Moscow.

For example, ex- Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Liz Cheney criticized Obama’s speech, which he delivered to the New Economic School graduates.

“There are two different versions of the story of the end of the Cold War: the Russian version, and the truth. President Barack Obama endorsed the Russian version in Moscow,” Liz Cheney toldThe Wall Street Journal.

The intergovernmental agreement about the implementation of the Nabucco gas pipeline project was signed in Ankara, Turkey on July 13. The pipeline will be built bypassing Ukraine and Russia. The chairman of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, stated that the construction of the pipeline became inevitable after the agreement had been signed. As a result, Turkmenistan, which sells a lot of its gas to Ukraine, will gain direct access to European markets, which may result in a price growth on fuel for Ukraine, Europe’s second largest nation.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who visited the republic of South Ossetia for the first time, shared his impressions of the country, which Russia recognized as an independent state after the armed conflict with Georgia last summer.

“It was our first visit to the new state, which appeared as an independent country nearly a year ago. It happened after an act of rude aggression on the part of the Georgian regime,”Itar-Tass news agency quoted Medvedev as saying. “The Georgian regime is entirely responsible for what happened in August of 2008,” Medvedev added.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev illustrated his call for a supranational currency to replace the dollar by pulling from his pocket a sample coin of a “united future world currency.” This is exactly what the Bilderberg group want. (This is a secret organisation, building on dictatorial worldslavery described in Georges Orwell’s 1984)

“Here it is,” Medvedev told reporters today in L’Aquila, Italy, after a summit of the Group of Eight nations. “You can see it and touch it.”

The coin, which bears the words “unity in diversity,” was minted in Belgium and presented to the heads of G-8 delegations, Medvedev said.

India announced its plans to double the purchase of Russia’s Su-30MKI fighter jets. If the plans become real, Russia will set a new record selling the largest quality of fourth-generation aircraft to a foreign customer. The deal will considerably improve the reputation of Russia’s renowned jet, although it does have significant competitors from the fifth generation.

India may considerably enlarge its fleet of Russian-made Su-30MKI by 2015 – to 230 planes, news agencies reported with reference to India’s Defense Minister Arackaparambil Kurian Antony. The official said that India had purchased 98 of such fighter jets from Russia since 1996.

Millions of migrant workers live in Russia, with many of them coming from Central Asia, especially Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

This has led to a big reduction in the amount of money sent back to Central Asia. Tajikistan relies on such remittances for around one-third of its income, but the International Organisation for Migration says Tajik remittances could fall by up to 30% this year.But since the onset of the global economic crisis many of them have lost their jobs.

Martin Vennard has been speaking to Central Asians in Moscow about their situation.

Thirteen armed men were killed in clashes with police in Russia’s regions of Dagestan and Chechnya on Sunday in the latest outburst of violence in the turbulent North Caucasus, local media and police said.

On Saturday, security forces in the nearby region of Ingushetia killed four militants, including a rebel leader. The shooting in Dagestan broke out near the town of Khasavyurt after policemen tried to stop a car without number plates.

Most of America knows (beyond any reasonable doubt) that Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama) is not Constitutionally eligible to hold the office of President of the United States (POTUS) and Commander in Chief (CinC) (per Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution of the U.S.).

Most of America also knows (beyond any reasonable doubt) that the members of Congress (all 535 of them), the Federal Courts, the Supreme Court, and ALL the Media (including FNC) are either ‘in the tank for’ or ‘paid off or intimidated by’ the illegitimate, criminal and Treasonous presumed President and Commander in Chief, Barry Soetoro (aka Barack Hussein Obama) and his coterie of thugs.

Moses gave us the Ten Commandments to guide our personal lives 3000 years ago. Now it is perhaps a good time to develop a Ten Commandments to guide the behavior of Nations. Given the state of the World and the damage and chaos created by George W. Bush, the Waster, we should consider an application of the universal truths of Moses to international behavior:

1) Thou shalt not kill nations

Nations must not be invaded, subjugated, dismembered or subjected to genocide. Only if there is a true and demonstrated need for self defense should one nation go to war with another.

2) Thou shalt not steal from nations

From trade “agreements” to reserve currency privileges to expensive loans, one nation must not lord its superior economic power over another.

3) Thou shalt not bear false witness against nations

Charges of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and conspiracies must be substantiated. It is too easy for a superpower to demonize a nation with its massive media technology, and to repeat over and over again its lies. The “news” of false witness must stop; it is time to tell the truth.

4) Thou shalt not take advantage of weaker nations

The strong should be helping the under-developed nations rather than gaining by their vulnerabilities.

One of the largest historical projects of the Russian Iternet, the Hrono.ru website, was closed down in accordance with a requirement from the police of St. Petersburg.

The police found the text of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf (My Struggle) on the website, Itar-Tassnews agency reports. The police asked the company, the server of which hosted the website, to block the access to Hrono.ru, and the provider fulfilled the requirement.

The main page of the website still opens, but a click on any link on the page takes a visitor to the website of the Internet provider, which says that Hrono.ru has been blocked.

Over half of the Earth’s population was represented in summit meetings in Yekaterinburg this week. BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), the world’s largest emerging economies, convened a summit in the Russian city simultaneously with, but separately from, the ninth Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on Tuesday, June 16. China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan are the permanent members of the SCO. Mongolia, Pakistan, India and Iran are SCO observer states, with Iran an applicant for full membership.

When German troops neared Moscow in November 1941, there was a real threat for the capital of the Soviet Union to capitulate. Stalin found out shortly before that that Adolf Hitler was conducting all important meetings in underground bunkers. Stalin decided to build reliable shelters for himself.

In accordance with the secret decree of the State Committee for Defense signed on November 22, 1941, underground bunkers were built in Kuibyshev, Stalingrad, Saratov, Yaroslavl, Gorky, Ulyanovsk and Kazan. Lavrenty Beria, the chairman of the Committee, was personally in charge of the task.

President Obama today offered to scrap plans for a missile defence shield in Eastern Europe if Russia helped to stop Iran developing a nuclear bomb.He appealed in Moscow for a new era of partnership between Russia and the United States to fight the spread of nuclear weapons to rogue states and terrorist groups.“That is why we should be united in opposing North Korea’s efforts to become a nuclear power and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Russian and US media continue to discuss the forthcoming official visit of US President Barack Obama to Russia on July 6-8. Obama gave an exclusive interview to Itar-Tass news agency and Russia TV Channel.

In his first-ever interview for the Russia media, the US president spoke about the relations between the two countries and shared his thoughts about the Russian leaders – President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine has received about $800 million of profit from the export of arms in 2008. Sergey Bondarchuk, the chairman of the state-run company Ukrspetsexport, said that the nation’s arms export in 2007 brought the profit of $700 million and nearly $800 million – in 2008.

China ’s announcement overnight that it will allow companies to settle international trade claims in yuan shows how serious the Chinese authorities are about building a local currency market.

China will allow companies to use the yuan to settle cross-border trade and let them keep their entitlement to export tax rebates, seeking to reduce the reliance of importers and exporters on the U.S. dollar.

The People’s Bank of China will encourage banks to offer yuan settlement services from today, the bank said in the regulations published on its Web site. Transactions inside China will take place in Shanghai and four cities in southern Guangdong province, including Guangzhou and Shenzhen, while those outside China will occur in Hong Kong, Macau and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, it said.

ILS Proton successfully launched the SIRIUS FM-5 satellite into geo-transfer orbit on July 1 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhsta

ILS International Launch Services (ILS) successfully carried the SIRIUS FM-5 satellite into orbit on an ILS Proton. This was the third commercial mission of the year for ILS and the fifth successful Proton launch of 2009. ILS has launched the entire SIRIUS three-satellite constellation beginning with the first launch in 2000.

The ILS Proton Breeze M launched from Pad 39 at the cosmodrome at 1:10 a.m. local time (3:10 p.m. EDT, 19:10 GMT). After a 9 hour 14 minute mission, the Breeze M successfully released the SIRIUS FM-5 satellite, weighing over 5.8 metric tons, into geo-transfer orbit. This was the 346th launch for the Proton. The Proton Breeze M vehicle is developed and built by Khrunichev Research and Production Space Center of Moscow, Russia’s premier space manufacturer.

The United States knows that it does not have an independent foreign policy in the Middle East, says economist Paul Craig Roberts, who calls it a puppet government of Israel when it comes to affairs in the region.

“The United States government is not prepared to call the Israelis accountable to international law. The United States government was obviously prepared to accept an act of piracy by the Israelis. And the United States protects Israel from the international community, from the United Nations. The United States, which talks about human rights, never delivers when it comes to the Middle East,” Roberts told RT.

Russia was accused of stoking tensions with Georgia yesterday as it mounted a huge military exercise, in an ominous echo of last summer’s war. Thousands of troops and hundreds of armoured vehicles began the “Caucasus 2009” manoeuvres across southern Russia, close to the border with Georgia.Read the rest of this entry »

Belarus is the only country enjoying preferences in trade with Russia, he said. “Thanks to the low price Belarus pays for Russian crude and petroleum products, it has become a leading exporter of oil and gas derivatives to Europe. We will keep the price in the near future alongside the trend towards world energy prices,” he noted.

Belarusian First Deputy Prime Minister Vladimir Semashko said on Friday that Belarus hoped to retain current terms of Russian crude imports in 2010. “We have begun a new round of negotiations on Russian crude imports,” he said.

USSR’s former President Mikhail Gorbachev believes that Russia needs another large-scale anti-alcohol campaign. Making an appearance at a talk show on Russia’s First Channel, Mr. Gorbachev said that “according to the World Health Organization, the country, which makes 18 liters of alcohol per capita, is destroying itself”

The Secretary General of NATO and Russia’s envoy to the alliance have voiced their differences on family relations in Central Asia.

Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s representative in the Russia-NATO council, lashed out at the Partnership for Peace program, saying it was a vehicle to drag new countries in NATO, and now it has outlived itself.The two officials were speaking with journalists in the Kazakh capital Astana, which hosts the security forum of the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council, NATO’s structure for relations with European and Asian non-members of the alliance.

The US is reviewing its plans for the AMD shield in Eastern Europe, says Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen in his interview to RT.

M.M.: I am glad to be with you.RT: Chairman Michael Mullen thanks very much for being with us today.

RT: Do you think we can have an agreement on nuclear arms reduction to be signed by the two presidents while you are here?

M.M.: Well, the upcoming summit is a really critical meeting, obviously. The intent is to certainly reach that kind of agreement. It’s really up to the two presidents to make the final decision and to sign it. But I am encouraged by the progress that I am aware of from the negotiations viewpoint. I think it’s a very important undertaking.

The West is concerned about Russia’s military drills Kavkaz-2009 (Caucasus-2009) which started on June 29. The drills will end on July 6 and will embrace almost the entire territory of Russia’s south – from the Arkhangelsk region to Chechnya and Ingushetia republics. Many Western and Georgian experts say that the drills may trigger another war, like it happened in August of 2008.

The Washington Post wrote that Russia was conducting a similar military exercise last year. The completion of the event coincided with the beginning of the military actions. The newspaper is particularly concerned that the end of the drills coincides with Obama’s visit to Moscow.

Federal officials responsible for coping with the aftermath of a possible nuclear attack in the United States are not fully confident of the government’s readiness to deal with such a disaster, they told a Senate hearing Thursday.

Relations between Israel and Russia have grown tense over a significant change in Moscow’s attitude regarding the possible sale of S-300 air defense missiles to Iran. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and asked him to prevent the arms deal from going through.

Ahead of a meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama with his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev next week, Israel has began an international effort to pressure Russia not to complete the sale of the advanced air defense system.

There is no such notion as a former intelligence officer. An intelligence officer always remains an intelligence officer. This notion becomes particularly clear when you read the so-called “analyses” from the US Stratfor (Strategic Forecasting) agency. The agency collects information to look into the future of various regions of the globe. Stratfor’s founding father, George Friedman, is a former professor of geopolitics.

The agency’s products – forecasts and predictions – are especially important for companies involved in global trade. Stratfor does not expose the names of its clients – it only says that it cooperates with both large corporations and private individuals.

“We do not exclude a possibility to purchase foreign vessels from other countries,” Vladimir Vysotsky, the Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, stated June 24 at the opening of the International Naval Salon in St. Petersburg.

Russia has been either purchasing foreign warships or building the ones of its own with the participation of foreign specialists for a very long time. It happened during the Northern War of 1700-1721 against Sweden, when Dutch specialists built many of Russian vessels. It also happened so during the 19th and the 20th centuries, when Russia was forced to buy ships from other countries due to the nation’s lag in the technological development. Russia’s legendary cruiser Varyag, for instance, was built in the United States.

Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev started his visit to Africa on June 24. Medvedev will travel to Nigeria, Namibia and Angola. Moscow is ready to help the African countries in the development of their natural resources – oil, gas and uranium – despite the economic crisis.

Russia does not conceal its strategic interests in Africa. The black continent can indeed become a new perspective and attractive market if armed conflicts reduce in number there.

The session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is closing in Strasbourg on Friday. This session may become the last one for the Russian delegation. Russia may be deprived of the voting right in Europe’s largest organization already this autumn or winter, the chairman of the Committee for International Affairs of Russia’s State Duma, Konstantin Kosachev said.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said before that Russia would be ready to leave the Council of Europe in case the organization introduces such a sanction. If it happens, Russian citizens will not be able to address to the European Court for Human Rights to appeal the decision of Russian courts and authorities. For the time being, Belarus is the only country in Europe which does not hold the PACE membership.

The Conference of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) opened in Austria. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the West to accept the suggestion from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev about the new European Security Treaty which would include the principles of disarmament and regulation of conflicts.

“It goes about the concept of security based on cooperation, which is a fundamental concept for the entireEuro-Atlantic region. Everyone recognized the concept long ago, but it has never been possible to materialize it. The idea of the new treaty gives us another chance,” Sergey Lavrov said at the conference in Vienna.

Ten billboards depicting images of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin appeared on the streets of Voronezh to everyone’s surprise. The bright-colored billboards prepared for the 130th anniversary of “the leader of all time and nations” show Stalin wearing his parade uniform. The slogan on the billboards says: “Victory will be ours.”

The Voronezh-based division of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation acknowledged that the billboards appeared on the streets of the city upon their initiative. The city authorities are now investigating whether the street advertisements shall be considered as inappropriate, The Nezavisimaya Gazeta wrote.

The city authorities showed a reaction to Stalin’s images in the streets only after the billboards attracted the attention of the local media.

Russia’s strategic nuclear-powered Yury Dolgoruki submarine has finally been launched. It is the first submarine, which Russia made after the collapse of the USSR. Russian shipbuilders can be both proud and ashamed of the new cruiser: the works on the submarine began 16 years ago.

The construction of the nuclear cruiser was very slow due to the lack of finance. When the submarine was finally assembled, it turned out that the Bulava rocket was not ready for it. Officials of Russia’s Defense Ministry say that the new rocket would be passed into service in 2009 or in 2010.

It looks like the United States is going to stay in Kyrgyzstan to Russia’s great disappointment. The government of the former Soviet nation in Central Asia has changed its mind about the withdrawal of US troops from the airbase at Manas Airport.

The dispute about the fate of the US airbase at Kyrgyzstan’s Manas, which plays a very important role in terms of maintaining NATO troops in Afghanistan, continues. The government of the Asian nation previously decided to close the base and passed the adequate law on April 2 of this year.

However, it transpired yesterday that the US troops are not going anywhere. They will keep the base if it is going to be used solely for the delivery of cargoes to Afghanistan. The governments of Turkey and Afghanistan addressed to Kyrgyzstan with a suggestion, which the poor nation could not decline: a billion dollars of investments in the country’s economy in return to the promise to keep the Manas base.

What are the images that come to your mind when you hear the word “Amsterdam”?

It has taken more than a decade to complete the project. And the opening ceremony went off with the bang as guests of honor – Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and President Medvedev among them – watched the grand “fireworks” finale of the celebrations (notably, fireworks are banned in the city, but the authorities made an exception for this occasion).

“Peter the Great would be happy with this,” the head of the Hermitage, Mikhail Piotrovsky, told the journalists who attended the event.

By bringing its most renowned museum to Amsterdam, Russia’s returning the favor.

Brazil and fellow up-and-coming economies Russia, India and China discussed how they could exert greater sway over the global financial system at their first summit in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg last week, but they surprised observers with toned-down talk about reducing the world’s reliance on the U.S. dollar.

Frustration at the dominant but unstable dollar as the world’s reserve currency had united the so-called BRIC grouping — an acronym coined to describe these four key emerging markets — in the first place, and motivated them to find a common base on which to capitalize on their own growing economic influence.

Brazil, China and Russia have all said they will purchase notes from the International Monetary Fund to begin diversifying their reserves away from the greenback.

The time has come for Brazil, Russia, India and China to play a central role in a new global economy. That was the message of the debut summit of the so-called BRIC group, hosted in Yekaterinburg this week.

Hopes are high, and the leaders say their very first summit proved an even bigger success than they’d imagined.

“I think that the boost of development of the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China – will continue to have a strong impact on the world’s economic development, industrial capacity and global security. The BRIC summit must create conditions for a much fairer world order and solve global problems” proposed Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

In an interview with Channel One TV, President Dmintry Medvedev said his family prefers to buy Russian food since they believe there are more chemicals in imported products than in locally produced food.

Dmitry Medvedev: Good evening, Kirill. I think the time has come indeed to talk about the situation in agriculture. The time is right, and I think the place is not bad either. This is a good place to talk about agriculture’s prospects and problems.Kirill Kleimenov, Channel One Current Affairs program anchor, was interviewing the Russian President at Barvikha, the presidential residence in the Moscow Region.

Kirill Kleimenov: Good evening, Mr President. Thank you for finding the time to answer our questions. Our questions today are about agriculture – a very important subject, a big subject.

The sky above Moscow is defended weakly. Military experts say that the Russian capital is vulnerable against an air attack or a missile strike. Russia’s latest S-400 missile system will not be capable of improving the situation. The new upgraded missiles for the complex have not been designed yet.

The subject of Moscow’s air defense surfaced again at a news conference on June 16. Anatoly Kornukov, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force, and Leonid Ivashov, the former chief of Russia’s Military Staff, believe that Moscow’s air defense system is outdated and therefore incapable of executing its goals. Mr. Ivashov

believes that Russia needs to either make huge investments in the development of its air defense system or move the capital to the east of the country.

Russia’s External Intelligence Service declassified the archives about one of the most prominent Soviet intelligence officers in Nazi Germany – Willy Leman, a top secret Soviet agent nicknamed as Breitenbach. He was USSR’s only agent at Germany’s Gestapo. Leman warned Moscow of Germany’s intention to attack the Soviet Union, RIA Novosti news agency reports.

The documents, which Leman provided to Soviet secret agents since 1941, said that Nazi Germany was preparing to attack the Soviet Union.

The reputable German news magazine has sparked uproar in its latest issue by proclaiming that Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili started the war by attacking South Ossetia on August 7, 2008.

In an email exchange with RT, the office of Heidi Tagliavini wrote: “Der Spiegel, in today’s edition (25/2009) published a two page article… which reflects on the work of IIFFMCG in a largely speculative and unsubstantiated way. In this context, I would like to state the following:

“Spiegel’s article is not based on information provided by… Ambassador Tagliavini, or any other authorized sources…. There has been no interview, background briefing or any other way of communication in order to provide information for the article.”

Hungary’s Malev and SuperJet International – a joint venture of Italy’s Alenia and Russia’s Sukhoi – signed the agreement of intent to purchase 30 Sukhoi Superjet-100 (SSJ-100) aircraft, Interfax reports. The contract is evaluated at $1 billion.

Malev plans to purchase 98-seated SSJ-100s. The first airplane will be delivered to the company in 2011 and will receive six SuperJet airplanes every year afterwards.

“The new Sukhoi Superjet-100 can be used for both regional and medium-range flights, which coincides with the route network of the airline,” Malev’s General director Martin Gauss said. “We plan to restructure our fleet particularly because of our plans to increase our air transportation,” he added.

A delegation of the North Atlantic Alliance with its chairman Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at the head arrived in Ukraine on June 16 with an official visit. Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko invited the delegation within the scope of NATO’s decision to launch negotiations with Ukraine with a view to activate a political dialogue between the former Soviet state and the alliance. In the meantime, the visit raises serious concerns with the Russian administration. Russian officials said that Ukraine’s possible incorporation into the North Atlantic Alliance may result in the introduction of the visa entry between the two countries.

The leaders have gathered to discuss security, economic development and other things, like finding their place in the global architecture of the new economic world, said British Times Moscow bureau editor Tony Halpin.

North Korea, which threatens to unleash the war against the United States and its allies, probably prepares several new nuclear explosions. Two or three nuclear objects may appear in the north-west of North Korea, where the previous nuclear test was carried out, South Korean Yonhap news agency reported with reference to intelligence sources.

For the time being, there is no evidence to prove that the nation is working on a new explosion, sources say. Official spokespeople for US special services said that North Korea intended to respond with a third nuclear blast to UN’s new sanctions. Pyongyang conducted its second nuclear test on May 25, which made the UN Security Council toughen sanctions against the country on June 12.

Responding to remarks by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, a top Russian diplomat said Thursday that Russia would not collaborate with the United States on missile defense unless Washington scrapped plans to deploy elements of the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic.

“We cannot partner in the creation of objects whose goal is to oppose the strategic deterrent forces of the Russian Federation,” said the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Andrei A. Nesterenko. “No one will do something that harms himself.”

“Only the United States’ rejection of plans to base in Europe the so-called third position area of the missile-defense shield could mark the beginning of a full-fledged dialogue on the question of cooperation and reaction to likely missile risk,” Mr. Nesterenko said. He added that Russia expected “it will be possible to find a common denominator.”

The identification of the terrorists, who were killed near the settlement of Dattykh, the Ingushetia Republic, will be impossible without the DNA expertise. Doku Umarov, a Chechen terrorist leader, is said to be among the bodies. Experts have already taken blood samples from Umarov’s close relatives for the expertise, The Kommersant newspaper wrote.

After a decadelong search, a team of Baltic Sea divers has discovered the wreckage of a Soviet submarine that sank with dozens of sailors aboard during World War II, one of the divers said.

They found the S-2 submarine near the Aland Islands between Sweden and Finland in February but only announced it this week because they wanted to confirm the identity of the vessel, team member Marten Zetterstrom said.

He said all 50 crew members died when the vessel exploded in 1940, probably after hitting a mine. He declined to give the exact location.

“My feelings were mixed. There it was, this war machine that was built to take ships down. I was happy, sad, depressed and elated all at once,” Zetterstrom said.

Dagestani Interior Minister Adilgirei Magomedtagirov was killed by a sniper on Friday. He had been attending the wedding of the daughter of his friend, the chief of the local Interior Ministry’s economic crimes department. The wedding was held at The Marrakesh, the most popular restaurant in Makhachkala, where guests have to make reservations for the banquet hall three months in advance and where drunken shootouts happen at least once a month.

Contrary to official reports, which claimed that the sniper used a rifle typically used by special police forces, the shots were fired from a machine gun from the ninth floor of an adjacent building.

Abkhazia must chart a course for tomorrow and beyond. A 21st-century Abkhaz state must be prepared for the challenges and opportunities that lie before it.

It is essential that all Abkhaz at home and in the diaspora chart a course in rebuilding their homeland. They must transform their resources into an economic engine that creates jobs and wealth for their people. The diaspora, which has been living in exile for the entire 20th century, must play a significant role in transforming their society and contribute in building the new Abkhaz nation.

On May 13, Interior Ministry employee Roman Zhirov, driving his powerful SUV, hit and killed a 34-year-old pregnant woman on a Moscow crosswalk. Pregnant woman are not particularly known for sprinting across pedestrian crossways out of nowhere and catching an approaching driver by surprise.

Zhirov pulled into the lane of oncoming traffic to pass a car that had stopped at the crosswalk to let the pregnant woman pass. After Zhirov struck the woman, he raced away, but eyewitnesses wrote down his license plate number. In the West, this would be classified as manslaughter and fleeing the crime scene. In Russia, the investigation was handed over to the same department where Zhirov worked. He was questioned briefly and released.

A scandal erupted 10 days later. The victim’s husband wrote that Zhirov was back at work as if nothing had happened. The scandal spread to the Internet, where a record number of posts finally spilled onto President Dmitry Medvedev’s personal blog. After that, the Interior Ministry reported that Zhirov had been arrested.

But this turned out to be false. Zhirov had not been arrested, but only dismissed for “committing an act bringing dishonor to the police force.”Read the rest of this entry »

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has warned the European Union not to turn a proposed partnership with former Soviet countries against Moscow.

Mr Medvedev was speaking at the end of a Russia-EU summit held against a background of deep divisions over security, trade and energy supplies.

He also signalled a new gas crisis may lie ahead, suggesting Ukraine lacks the money to pay for gas Russia provides.

A row over prices severely affected supplies to Europe in January.

The BBC’s Richard Galpin in Moscow says divisions between Russia and the European Union seem to be growing ever wider, and this latest summit, held in the far east of Russia, made that abundantly clear, with little sign of progress on any significant topic.

“We would not want the Eastern Partnership to turn into partnership against Russia. There are various examples,” Mr Mevedev told a news conference at the end of the summit.

“I would simply not want this partnership to consolidate certain individual states, which are of an anti-Russian bent, with other European states,” he said.

Moscow has accused the 27-member bloc of creating new dividing lines in Europe by offering closer ties to six former Soviet republics.

The Eastern Partnership Initiative aims to forge close political and economic ties in exchange for democratic reforms.

Most of the world marks the end of the Second World War on the 8th of May. But for Soviet Russia it ended the day after. In modern Russia, May 9th is still celebrated as a major national holiday.

For the Soviet Union, the war started with the German invasion on June 22, 1941. Germany wa able to go to war with the big help of Rothschildmoney.

The clash at the Eastern front between Germany and the Red Army has been labeled the Great Patriotic War. This term was first used in an article in one of the Soviet newspapers, and it still bares this name.

All in all, over 100 million military personnel participated and at least 70 million people died during the Second World War, most at the Eastern front in the period of four years … More people fought and died in the Great Patriotic War than in all other theatres of the Second World War combined.